How a healthy gut can help you glow from the inside out

Did you know that your gut health and skin health are linked?

Your skin and gut microbiomes communicate through what’s known as the Gut-Skin Axis. This means that the health of one influences the health of the other. 

Turns out, the gut is involved in a lot of functions, from your immune system to your mood and mental state. So it comes as no surprise that your gut is involved in skin health too. The relationship between gut health and skin health is well established. There are a number of academic articles* (we’ve listed a few below) documenting the connection between the gut microbiome and skin health. 

Want better skin? Start within! Read on to learn how to keep your gut healthy and happy, so your skin glows from the inside out!

Happy Gut Protocol

3 Ways to Improve Gut Health for Better Skin

Keeping your gut happy and healthy is important for overall well being, and can also improve your skin. Glow from the inside out with these 3 tips:

1. Probiotic Power

If probiotics aren’t already part of your routine, it might be time to give these gut superheroes a try! Probiotics are live bacteria that you can take to help restore and balance your gut microbiome. 

A balanced gut microbiome can improve skin health and even help with skin conditions. This article concluded that probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics can be beneficial in preventing and treating inflammatory skin diseases.

You can get probiotics through fermented foods like sauerkraut, miso, and tempeh, kefir and kimchi, and in supplement form. Generally, a variety of strains is best to promote microbial diversity.

2. Fabulous Fibre

Fibre? Fabulous?? Yep! Fibre goes hand-in-hand with probiotics for a healthy gut. The good bacteria in your gut LOVES fibre! Enzymes in the digestive system break it down, producing short-chain fatty acids which create an inhospitable environment for damaging micro-organisms.

Add more fibre to your diet by eating whole foods including fruit, veggies, and whole grains. Your gut (and skin) will thank you for it!

3. Manage Stress

Stress affects the whole body, including your gut. High levels of stress causes the autonomic system to send out distress signals, wreaking havoc on the gut’s microbiota. Stress also causes certain neurotransmitters to kick into overdrive, which affects the gut’s immune system and impacts nutrient absorption.

Need to de-stress? Try one of these 3 gut-happy techniques to reduce stress:

1) Get your Beauty Sleep

A good night’s sleep is essential for many of your body’s systems to remain in balance, including your gut. And since catching those zzz’s can reduce stress and help your body cope better, it’s especially important. Want more? Check out our Beauty Sleep blog for tips to get healthier skin while you sleep.

2) Exercise 

Sure, we all know that exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle. But did you know that it’s also good for your gut? This recent review concluded that exercise correlated with a significant increase in gut microbiota diversity. Research has also shown that exercise boosts the growth of beneficial gut bacteria.

3) Spend Time with Animals

Spending time interacting with animals can help reduce stress. It has been shown to decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower blood pressure. And an added gut bonus? Pets, especially dogs, expose you to all kinds of friendly microbes, helping your gut health. As if we needed another reason to love ‘em!

Takeaway

Your gut and your skin are linked, and one impacts the other. As you take steps to improve your gut health, it will boost the health of your skin as well. 

The takeaway? Taking care of your gut health can improve your skin and help you GLOW from the inside out!

Healthier skin starts from within!

**********

Eileen Fauster of Essential Balance is a Registered Acupuncturist and Registered Holistic Nutritionist who specializes in skin care. Eileen helps clients by using the Vienna Mei Ren non-surgical acupuncture facelift, which combines the best acupuncture needles and techniques with a beautifying skin rejuvenation regime.

* Academic Articles:

De Pessemier, B., Grine, L., Debaere, M., Maes, A., Paetzold, B., & Callewaert, C. (2021). Gut-Skin Axis: Current Knowledge of the Interrelationship between Microbial Dysbiosis and Skin Conditions. Microorganisms, 9(2), 353. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9020353 

Jimenez-Sanchez, M., Celiberto, L. S., Yang, H., Sham, H. P., & Vallance, B. A. (2025). The gut-skin axis: a bi-directional, microbiota-driven relationship with therapeutic potential. Gut Microbes, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2025.2473524 

Mahmud, Md. R., Akter, S., Tamanna, S. K., Mazumder, L., Esti, I. Z., Banerjee, S., … Pirttilä, A. M. (2022). Impact of gut microbiome on skin health: gut-skin axis observed through the lenses of therapeutics and skin diseases. Gut Microbes, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2096995 

Salem, I. , Ramser A. , Isham N. , Ghannoum M. A. (2018). The Gut Microbiome as a Major Regulator of the Gut-Skin Axis. Frontiers in Microbiology (9). https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01459